The present invention generally relates to a packaging apparatus for packaging an object with a packaging material, and more specifically, to a packaging apparatus for winding an elastic film on the roll sheet steel.
In general, a packaging apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.294314/1993 is known as an apparatus for packaging an annular object, for example, a coil of a metal banded body.
This type of packaging apparatus comprises a loop body including two beams and a gate section that can be opened and closed with respect to these beams, and a shuttle is disposed along the inner peripheral surface of the loop body in such a manner that it orbits along the inner periphery of the loop body. The shuttle is crawler-type by the use of an electric motor, and including roll packaging material therein.
Operation of such an apparatus comprises the steps of opening the gate section of the loop body, setting a hoop coil to the loop body so that a beam of the loop body passes through the hole of the hoop coil to be packaged, closing the gate section, then pulling the packaging material out from inside the shuttle and fixing the tip thereof to the hoop coil, and subsequently moving the shuttle along the loop body while rotating the hoop coil to wind the packaging material from inside the shuttle on the hoop coil.
However, since the packaging apparatus of the related art is constructed in such a manner that a packaging material is accommodated in the shuttle that has to orbit around the limited internal space of the loop body and to pass through the further limited space, or the hollow in the hoop coil, the quantity of the packaging material that can be accommodated within the shuttle has no other choice but to be extremely limited.
Therefore, in the above-described packaging apparatus of the related art, disadvantageously, the packaging material within the shuttle has to be refilled quite often. In addition, since the material is accommodated within the shuttle, the refilling work of the packaging material is quite complicated.
With the problem described above in view, it is an object of the present invention to provide a packaging apparatus in which the packaging material is supplied by the packaging material supply means independently of the mobile body moving along the annular guide body.
In order to solve the problem described above, a packaging apparatus of the present invention comprises a mobile body for leading the packaging material, an annular guide body for guiding the mobile body, a mobile body drive means for moving the mobile body along the annular guide body, and a packaging material supply means arranged outside the annular guide body.
According to the packaging apparatus of the construction described above, when the object to be packaged is placed in the internal space of the annular guide body, and the mobile body is moved along the annular guide body by means of the mobile body drive means with the packaging material from the packaging material supply means attached to the object to be packaged, the mobile body moves around the object to be packaged while leading the packaging material extending between the object to be packaged and the packaging material supply means to package the object to be packaged with the packaging material.
In the packaging apparatus having a construction as described above, since the packaging material supply means and the mobile body are separately provided, and the mobile body is not provided with a packaging material supply source in itself and the packaging material supply means is disposed outside the annular guide body, even when the packaging material supply source of the packaging material supply means disposed outside the annular guide body is increased in size, it does not cause interference of the mobile body moving along the annular guide body with the object to be packaged disposed within the internal space of the annular guide body. In other words, a large amount of packaging material can be provided in the packaging material supply means without interference of the mobile body with the object to be packaged in the internal space of the annular guide body.
In this invention, it is preferable to further provide a tension providing means for giving a tension to the packaging material being lead by the mobile body.
Preferably, the mobile body comprises a film roller chain including a plurality of film roller chains connected by connecting link with each other, the annular guide body comprises a guide track for guiding and supporting the film roller chain, and the mobile body drive means is a drive belt for moving the film roller chain with respect to the guide track.
Preferably, the tension providing means includes a tension belt to be driven by the air motor in the direction opposite to the direction in which the mobile body moves in the annular guide body, and a relief valve between the air motor and the compressed air supply of the air motor for relieving compressed air from the compressed air supply when it is not necessary to give a tension to the packaging material.
Preferably there is provided a packaging material cutting device for cutting the packaging material supplied from the packaging material supply means.